Chapter 6

I almost passed out and he gave me some water, still grinning.

“You don’t expect the Minister to take you around the bases without you having the basic knowledge of military life, do you? This is going to be great.”

“Great, what do you mean, great! It will be me doing all these things!”

Chapter 4

I parked at the museum, beside the OB van, and went in. Matthew was organising the set, which didn’t take long with our morning preparation. Steve was in his official uniform and there had been a sign on the main door announcing that the museum was closed until five for a private function.

It's the FINAL FLASHBACK chapter.

Chapter 21 January 9th, 2024

Grace set her lunch tray down across from Angie and glanced behind her. Kylie and Mitch were still in line.

Angie didn’t look up. She slid a folded paper note across the table. Grace slipped it into her pocket.

“Thanks,” Grace said, forcing herself to take a bite.

“Yeah, no problem. You can pay me later. Everything’s set for tonight.” Angie lowered her voice. “Ava said we can both stay there. They’ll help us find jobs and all that shit.”

Chapter 2

I waited until we had finished dinner before I told my family the news.

“I went to Sydney this morning. I had a talk with the Head of News and came home as the new presenter for the ABC. My area is from the Gong to the border.”

Pauline squealed and stood up to give me a hug.

“That’s fantastic, Mummy. I’ll be able to see you on the box and shout at you without you yelling at me to be quiet.”

“Unless I’m in the room at the time, you minx.”

This is an unexpected continuation of ‘Anything Goes’ that started to gel while the original was being posted. The ABC in the story is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Historical references and all places are real.

Chapter 1

I was standing at the kitchen sink, washing up the breakfast things, It was a Sunday, the sun was shining, and I could see my husband and daughter frolicking in our swimming pool. It was now ten years since we had moved from Chelmsford to Australia, and things had changed.

Chapter 20 October 20th 2025

Whit pulled up behind an ambulance. There was a loud quiet inside the Emergency Room at Mud Creek’s small hospital. Whit and Lucy helped Grace limp up the counter. Heads turned, Grace had a bloody towel against the side of her head, her big pink Hello Kitty sweatshirt was stained with blood, and her pink tights and short skirt looked out of place in the blue green fluorescent lights.

The woman at the desk didn’t react outwardly. She glanced up once, took it all in, and stood immediately.

“Head injury?” she asked.

The elevator opens and I step into the office. My shoes squeak against the linoleum, too loose, and my hips move with each step in a rhythm I'm not choosing. The receptionist gives me her usual nod.

Disguised, Abducted, Married

I have been working for one of the alphabet agencies for just short of six years, one of the myriad different federal agencies belonging to that group. We dealt mainly with situations here in the U.S. but ones that had more unusual circumstances, leaving the FBI to handle most of the rest. A simple bank robbery would fall under the FBI, but if the robbery was through the internet or involved people that worked for the bank we would get called in.

The first thing is the seat.

Not pain — just wrongness, a soft pressure where there shouldn't be softness, the wooden chair coming up against sensitive and unfamiliar flesh, flesh that registers the hardness of the wood with a directness that makes you shift immediately, instinctively, your weight rolling forward onto your thighs. Better. Marginally. The underwear is wrong too — something silky, something that rides and gathers in ways that underwear shouldn't, the fabric light against skin that is reporting every thread of it.

You look at the table.

I will be posting this story on RoyalRoad.com, genderscarlet@gmail.com

Outside the window the light is flat and grey, the kind of March morning that hasn't decided what it wants to do yet. I kick the sheets off. The air in the bedroom is cool but my thighs feel damp, sticky almost, the boxers bunching up between my legs like they're caught on something. I press my palms into the mattress and push myself up, legs swinging over the edge - except my balance is wrong. Not dizzy. Just off, like my center of gravity shifted an inch or two south while I was sleeping.